Benjamin Barker Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 (edited) This is not about the economy people. This is about Trent Edwards. No one really likes him and so they didn't renew their tickets. If the Bills drafted Tebow or Clausen the numbers would be much higher. Once the Bills get a new QB prospect everyone will come back. The fact of the matter is that the Bills offense is so bad it makes their games consistently boring when compared to other teams. Edited September 8, 2010 by Benjamin Barker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammered a Lot Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Group sales for Bills tickets are up 15%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billsfreak Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 This is not about the economy people. This is about Trent Edwards. No one really likes him and so they didn't renew their tickets. If the Bills drafted Tebow or Clausen the numbers would be much higher. Once the Bills get a new QB prospect everyone will come back. The fact of the matter is that the Bills offense is so bad it makes their games consistently boring when compared to other teams. It has alot more to do with the lack of signing free agents, hiring of a coaching staff that nobody else wanted and generated about as much excitement as watching paint dry and the fact that the team hasn't won in a decade plus. It has nothing to do with Edwards, in fact when just about all of the season tickets were sold, nobody knew who the QB was even going to be. He has been the starter going into the past two seasons, yet more tickets were sold-so your theory makes zero sense. Some people need to get over their hate for Edwards and realize he is the quarterback of this team for at least this season, so why not cheer him on if you are in fact a Bills fan. I thought Brohm should have been cut, but if he gets into the game because of injury, benching, whatever, you can bet your sweet a#s I will be cheering for him-why, because I am a Bills fan, not some idiot who hates someone he has probably never even met. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeMonkey Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 (edited) Lots of teams thinking about blackouts this season: TV blackouts are part of a long-standing NFL policy that commissioner Roger Goodell has consistently said is not up for reconsideration. ... "I'm optimistic that we're going to be able to hopefully improve that number (of 22 blackouts in 2009)." !@#$ you King Roger, you greedy !@#$. You will improve it all right, you may double it! Eat **** and die! Buffalo Bills: Have sold out three games. Can't rule out blackouts. Teams that have sold out for the season as of yesterday: Baltimore Ravens Denver Broncos Green Bay Packers Indianapolis Colts New England Patriots Cheatriats New Orleans Saints Philadelphia Eagles Pittsburgh Steelers Tennessee Titans Washington Redskins Link Edited September 8, 2010 by CodeMonkey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Game day attendance is down league wide, and has been the topic of popular sports radio shows like Colin Cow-turd and Jim Rome. Actually, the total attendance per game (256 games) is down less than 1% from the previous season (which was a record season for attendance. Still it was higher than 2003, for instance, which was in a much different economy. Rome and the other guy are misinformed/exaggerating. Every team is going to lose money this year. No NFL team is going to make money in this nightmare of an economy. Not this year. Not with the middle class essentially tapped out financially or unemployed. Wow. Just....wow. Why do people say these things? With all due respect to some of you who brought up the economy, do you really think that if the Bills were coming off a 10-6 season last year and we won at least one playoff game that there would be any (ANY) hesitation by these fans to buy the crap out of those tickets and sellout the whole season? ...this is definitely NOT one of those scenarios where "its the economy, stupid!". There would be no hesitation. Winning makes "the economy" a nonfactor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 IMO the major factor was the lackluster and (at the time) uninspiring choices of Buddy Nix and Chan Gailey. If Cowher or Shanahan would have come here season tickets probably would have been up from last year despite the recession. Fans renew and order season tickets before training camp starts. Bills fans were okay with Buddy Nix as a personnel guy but he wasn't breathing fire into anyone. The Gailey hire let the air out of all the tires. It was hard to find anyone who liked it, let alone liked it enough to rush out and get season tickets because of it. And then we didn't sign any FA with any names. No wonder we have 11K less. Fast forward to now. Everyone seems to love the Gailey hire. People are cautiously optimistic, but it still isn't a time to buy season tickets. We're still a little gun shy until Gailey works his magic (or proves to be a fraud) in the regular season. The Miami game will be huge. If we come out and play well, the city will be abuzz and a lot of single game seats will be sold for the later games. In fact, if the fans felt like they do now about Gailey and Nix back when they were hired, I bet we may have 1K less instead of 11K. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NyQuil Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Hmm, so that's hy I was able to upgrade to where I am now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeMonkey Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 IMO the major factor was the lackluster and (at the time) uninspiring choices of Buddy Nix and Chan Gailey. If Cowher or Shanahan would have come here season tickets probably would have been up from last year despite the recession. Fans renew and order season tickets before training camp starts. Bills fans were okay with Buddy Nix as a personnel guy but he wasn't breathing fire into anyone. The Gailey hire let the air out of all the tires. It was hard to find anyone who liked it, let alone liked it enough to rush out and get season tickets because of it. And then we didn't sign any FA with any names. No wonder we have 11K less. Fast forward to now. Everyone seems to love the Gailey hire. People are cautiously optimistic, but it still isn't a time to buy season tickets. We're still a little gun shy until Gailey works his magic (or proves to be a fraud) in the regular season. The Miami game will be huge. If we come out and play well, the city will be abuzz and a lot of single game seats will be sold for the later games. In fact, if the fans felt like they do now about Gailey and Nix back when they were hired, I bet we may have 1K less instead of 11K. Well the opener is sold out, as is the Steelers game. I believe the Jets game is the other sell out so far. So that would mean the first 4 games will be on TV. I suspect how those first 4 games go will determine if the remaining home games sell out or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akm0404 Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Um, people are really debating why the Bills lost something like 20% of their season ticket base? This isn't rocket science people - the reason that fans are dropping like flies is because the team is devoid of talented star players, plays a brutally unwatchable brand of football, and has the long-term stability of nitro-glycerin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notwoz Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Um, people are really debating why the Bills lost something like 20% of their season ticket base? This isn't rocket science people - the reason that fans are dropping like flies is because the team is devoid of talented star players, plays a brutally unwatchable brand of football, and has the long-term stability of nitro-glycerin. Actually, we're just trying to kill time until 1 p.m. Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 (edited) Um, people are really debating why the Bills lost something like 20% of their season ticket base? This isn't rocket science people - the reason that fans are dropping like flies is because the team is devoid of talented star players, plays a brutally unwatchable brand of football, and has the long-term stability of nitro-glycerin. Actually, the stability (in terms of not leaving the area) has never been better. That doesn't even enter into it anyway, since it's not like the team is going to move to another city mid-season. Edited September 8, 2010 by Doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akm0404 Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Actually, the stability (in terms of not leaving the area) has never been better. That doesn't even enter into it anyway, since it's not like the team is going to move to another city mid-season. ??????????????????? Please share the good news with the group! I'm under the impression that Ralph has no succession plan and the team will be auctioned off upon his death (which, by the very nature of death, has never been sooner) since he doesn't want to saddle his kids with the estate taxes (since they are soon to kick back in). But I'd postulate that the stability of the franchise does play a factor in how many season ticket holders a team has. If after this year we were to find out that next year will be their last year in Buffalo, I'd expect season ticket numbers to decline. Just wild speculation though. It's probably mostly because they stink and are boring and don't have any star players tho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeMonkey Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 But I'd postulate that the stability of the franchise does play a factor in how many season ticket holders a team has. I'd think the stability (in the moving or staying context) would have little to no effect on season ticket sales. It is a year to year decision for people. Where the team will be the following season should have no impact on the decision to buy for the current season or not. Now if there were a enormous one-time seat license to buy followed by more reasonable renewal rates the following seasons, then yeah. That decision would certainly be influenced by the stability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 ??????????????????? Please share the good news with the group! I'm under the impression that Ralph has no succession plan and the team will be auctioned off upon his death (which, by the very nature of death, has never been sooner) since he doesn't want to saddle his kids with the estate taxes (since they are soon to kick back in). But I'd postulate that the stability of the franchise does play a factor in how many season ticket holders a team has. If after this year we were to find out that next year will be their last year in Buffalo, I'd expect season ticket numbers to decline. Just wild speculation though. It's probably mostly because they stink and are boring and don't have any star players tho We don't know Ralph's succession plan, but the "the team will be sold to the highest bidder" thing has been debunked. The most logical plan (besides selling a minority stake in the team, something Ralph has been loathe to do so far), is leaving the team to his wife after his death, since there would be no estate tax. And I'd be willing to bet that that's what the succession plan is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeMonkey Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 We don't know Ralph's succession plan, but the "the team will be sold to the highest bidder" thing has been debunked. The most logical plan (besides selling a minority stake in the team, something Ralph has been loathe to do so far), is leaving the team to his wife after his death, since there would be no estate tax. And I'd be willing to bet that that's what the succession plan is. I'm certainly not privy to Mr. Wilsons Will. But the entire plan consisting of leaving it to his wife and letting her figure out what to do? I have to believe someone like Mr. Wilson has more foresight than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sisyphean Bills Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 ??????????????????? Please share the good news with the group! I'm under the impression that Ralph has no succession plan and the team will be auctioned off upon his death (which, by the very nature of death, has never been sooner) since he doesn't want to saddle his kids with the estate taxes (since they are soon to kick back in). But I'd postulate that the stability of the franchise does play a factor in how many season ticket holders a team has. If after this year we were to find out that next year will be their last year in Buffalo, I'd expect season ticket numbers to decline. Just wild speculation though. It's probably mostly because they stink and are boring and don't have any star players tho Justed watched this happen, actually. Team announced it was moving last offseason and this season total ticket sales (and season ticket sales) were well below average. On the plus side the last game was a sell out. So your theory has some evidence to support it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 I'm certainly not privy to Mr. Wilsons Will. But the entire plan consisting of leaving it to his wife and letting her figure out what to do? I have to believe someone like Mr. Wilson has more foresight than that. Well, Kelly said that he has a group ready to buy the team. I don't think much more planning needs to be done than leaving the team to his wife and her selling the team to Kelly's group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BADOLBILZ Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 economic pessimism "REALITY" facing "EXISTING IN" the entire country, just not WNY, Blaming the Bills season ticket drop on the economy is like blaming the Bills record the past few years on injuries. It's an easy excuse but completely misleading. As Promo stated, people are dying for a reason to go to the games but in general, they are reasonably skeptical. In that number there are probably 10,000 Bills fans who have had enough of the BS and want to see a smarter and more competitive Bills organization before they guarantee a ticket payment. Yeah, money is tighter everywhere, but if the product was there the people would be. It's a sad state of affairs, they squandered a lot of fan base momentum. The best thing Tom Donahoe did when he came here was organize the marketing of the Bills as an experience. In the past few years they have made Bills fans feel like they are being taken with their half hearted/ill conceived attempts to put a good team on the field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodeMonkey Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Well, Kelly said that he has a group ready to buy the team. I don't think much more planning needs to be done than leaving the team to his wife and her selling the team to Kelly's group. If Kellys group can come up with that much bank that would be a wonderful thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dean Posted September 10, 2010 Share Posted September 10, 2010 Thats because we waived Levi Brown. With all due respect to some of you who brought up the economy, do you really think that if the Bills were coming off a 10-6 season last year and we won at least one playoff game that there would be any (ANY) hesitation by these fans to buy the crap out of those tickets and sellout the whole season? ...this is definitely NOT one of those scenarios where "its the economy, stupid!". You don't think there can be several reasons for the decline? If it were a GREAT economy you don't think there may be fewer people who give up their season tickets? I'm guessing it is a number of things. The Bills continual losing has to be one of the biggest, but I would guess the economy plays a part, too. BTW, I have heard some say the Bills picked CJ Spiller as some brilliant marketing ploy (you listening Bill?). I guess that was poorly played, then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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